Cleaver on dress code: Enforce it all

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) plans to send House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) a “friendly, handwritten” note to request that the chamber’s dress code be more strictly enforced, in light of his colleague Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) being removed from the House floor on Wednesday for wearing a hoodie.

Cleaver, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told Fox News Wednesday night that some members of the CBC believe Rush was treated unfairly when he was forced to leave the House floor for sporting a hooded sweater to bring attention to the shooting of Trayvon Martin, since it is fairly common practice for members of Congress to ignore the proper attire rules.

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“Whenever rules are not enforced, you create the opportunity for somebody to believe they have been singled out,” Cleaver told Fox. “You see during late-night votes, people stand in the back with jeans and no jackets and no ties.”

The Missouri Democrat added, “They need to know, we don’t care what the case is or what time of day it is. Those are the rules.”

A spokesperson for Cleaver told POLITICO that the note had not yet been written as of Thursday morning.

Rush walked onto the House floor Wednesday wearing a gray hoodie and sunglasses to make a statement about the shooting of Martin, a black teenager who was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida last month.

The congressman said he was escorted off the floor by someone from the Sergeant-at-Arms office after Speaker pro tempore Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) requested that proper dress rules be enforced.

Cleaver told Fox that he hoped Harper would have shown more flexibility with Rush. “The presider should have shown more deference,” he said. “You can put all kinds of motives behind a single action when you don’t enforce the rules.”

Asked whether he believes there is a “double standard” regarding attire on the House floor, Boehner said Thursday that he believes the rules are “enforced evenly.”

“I’ve asked members on both sides of the aisle to leave the floor myself,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “I know the Sargent-at-Arms has asked members to leave the floor. We expect all members to follow the rules, and the rules make it clear that members be on the floor in proper business attire.”

Pressed about female representatives who have worn hats on the House floor, Boehner responded, “I’ve not witnessed that. And I think the women members know that that is in violation of the rules.”

Martin’s death has become a national controversy, with members of the African-American community alleging that the victim was a target of racial profiling and calling for Zimmerman’s arrest. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self-defense.